Since Hannah had a hard time going to sleep on Christmas Eve, she wasn't interested in waking early to open presents. We made the boys wait for a little bit then let them open their stockings before their little heads exploded.
The best part about the stockings was their reaction. We had some disagreements in our house about Santa. Andrew didn't believe and Jonathan did. One night when Keith was reading a Christmas book to the boys about Santa, Andrew asked Keith if Santa was real. Keith answered, "Sure." and kept reading. The next page showed a picture of a tired Santa resting after a long night of delivering toys to all the boys and girls in the world. Andrew looked at the page for a second before looking at Keith and saying, "Are you crazy?!"
"Santa" moved and filled their stockings.
Jonathan looked at the stockings and said, "I knew he would come!"
One of the best presents Santa put in the stockings were electric toothbrushes, a Thomas one for Jonathan and Captain America for Andrew. Such a big hit. Who knew?!
Andrew was very excited about his Angry Bird key chain from Santa.
He quickly decided to build an Angry Bird tower.
After a few more minutes, we let them open their presents from Santa. Andrew was in awe when he saw there were several presents wrapped differently from all the others and marked from Santa. (His mother came up with this plan to confuse and intrigue him.) He whispered in awe, "He really is real!" To which I would've laughed, but I was suffering from severe laryngitis and couldn't make any noise.
Santa brought them little tents and a light-up moon.
When Hannah finally woke up, the unwrapping began. New matching T-shirts for the boys and a dress for Hannah.
The boys each picked out a present for each other. Jonathan picked out little Legos for Andrew, and Andrew chose a Chuggington train for Jonathan.
A Little Einstein laptop for Jonathan
An ISpy Leapster game for Andrew
A Little People house for Hannah
A Lego race game for Andrew
Keith got a new remote-control helicopter.
Hannah had started to open this present, and I quickly took it from her before Keith could see what it was. But I wasn't quick enough to avoid the watchful eyes of the boys. I had Keith open it last and the boys came running back into the room right before he opened it and asked if he had opened the helicopter yet. Surprise gift ruined. Oh, well.
the aftermath
Jonathan playing with his new GeoTrax zoo.
Christmas morning dawned bright and beautiful. This was the first time in our 10 years of marriage that we had no place we had to be on Christmas day, and we just relaxed and enjoyed it. I woke up with no voice and it didn't get better as the day went on. I could literally only whisper, but otherwise I felt fine. The interesting part of not having a voice was that I sort of became invisible to my children. In their minds, if mommy can't talk, then she obviously can't hear us either and daddy will solve all our issues. This gave me more time to read a book on my new Kindle! This was literally the quietest Christmas we have ever experienced, but it was perfect!
